Seen from Ukraine. As expected, talks with Russia came to nothing

The Ukrainian and Russian delegations finally met on Monday February 28 at the border with Belarus. In vain. The negotiators had not finished discussing, that the strikes and the fights – which had weakened, without ceasing – resumed even more violently.

At the end of this fifth day of war in Ukraine, the positions of the two camps are so contrary that no agreement is possible for the moment. This is what emerges from official statements in Kiev. “The discussions lasted more than four and a half hours, tells the daily Oukraina Moloda. And the details are not known.”

On the Ukrainian side, the delegation, made up of six people, was led by Foreign Minister Oleksiy Reznikov and adviser to the presidential cabinet Mykhaïlo Podoliak. At the Ukrainian-Belarusian border, she met the Russian delegation “in a place kept secret for security reasons.

“The key issue that needed to be discussed was that of an immediate ceasefire and the withdrawal of Russian forces from the territory of Ukraine,” explains Oleksiy Arestovitch, adviser to President Zelensky. He declares :

Our position was clear : no conditions, no ultimatums. At first, Russia said : ‘You capitulate, and then we talk.’ It made us laugh a lot.”

Negotiations marred by violence

What does Ukraine demand, for its part? The withdrawal of the military forces of the Russian Federation from all Ukrainian territory, including Crimea and Donbass. “It’s too early for talks, estime Arestovitch. I think this is a first attempt. But hopefully common sense will prevail, because what’s going on here…” And he leaves his sentence hanging. According to Oukraïna Moloda, “the Russian occupiers mercilessly fired on the residential area of ​​Saltivka, in Kharkiv,

[…]

International mail